


Monster

by ManiacalShen



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Cute, Established Relationship, F/F, Humor, Sexy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:28:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29051397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManiacalShen/pseuds/ManiacalShen
Summary: Gabrielle has been cursed. But is that actually a problem?
Relationships: Gabrielle/Xena
Comments: 12
Kudos: 44





	1. Cursed

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter started as a ficlet inspired by a bit of NSFW art: https://moddieeee.tumblr.com/post/630120409151520768/ooh-ho-hooooo-monster-time
> 
> Give that post some love if you have a Tumblr.
> 
> Other than that, I don't know what to say about this one. I'm keeping it rated "teen," but I hope it makes some people smile.

It was one of those times where the crisis was resolved but not over, at least not for Xena and Gabrielle. They had uncovered a plot to sabotage a moonlight wedding between an acolyte of Artemis - so that she might leave her goddess' service in full view and with her blessing - and the Roman lordling set to inherit the nearby city. The lordling's jealous friend - the acolyte's romantic rival - meant to curse the girl to spend the night as some kind of... something that wouldn't be welcome at a wedding.

And Gabrielle had stepped in front of the curse.

Xena had then gotten the cursing artifact away from the acolyte’s rival and put her in the town's jail, but while everyone else was setting up for the wedding, she and Gabrielle now sat in a borrowed hut with a barred door, waiting to see what would befall the bard.

Some helpful bystanders had suggested Xena wait outside the barred door for her safety, but as the sunlight waned in the small window, and Gabrielle looked up at her with tremulous green eyes, she internally scoffed anew at the idea. Hands on the younger woman's shoulders, she promised, "Whatever happens, I've got you, Gabrielle. Just one night; we can handle this."

"If I hurt you, I'll never forgive myself."

"Oh, your greedy old former warlord has plenty practice wrestling with green-eyed monsters." Xena watched the pun wrinkle Gabrielle's nose and make her laugh despite herself. "Besides, we still don't know what'll happen. Maybe you'll turn into a squirrel and run right out that window, or I'll get to cuddle a puppy all night."

"If I'm a puppy, you won't tell anyone if I piddle inside, will y-" Gabrielle cut off her question with a grunt, bending over as her muscles seized.

Xena squeezed her shoulders tighter. "Gabrielle?"

Muscles seized again, then expanded along with Gabrielle's whole body. The ties holding her brief top and skirt made painful-looking depressions in her skin, and Xena bent over her to untie everything as quickly as possible. After furious fingerwork and another body expansion, accompanied by a rough howl of pain from the bard, the top fell to the ground, but the arm bands were goners. The bracelets, deformed; the skirt in tatters on the ground. And Gabrielle?

Hoarse gasps held a deeper tenor than Xena had ever heard from her partner, and even though she was still bent over, their heads were of a height. Xena blinked, fascinated. Gabrielle's eyes were still squeezed shut, but the rounded contours of her face had broadened and sharpened, giving her angular cheekbones and a wider jaw. She kept her cute nose, though, and out of her short blonde locks now protruded pointed, fuzzy ears like those of a golden-furred dog. Similar fur had sprouted down the back of her neck and along her arms and legs - basically anywhere she usually had thicker body hair, with just a smattering in places like her belly. The transformation added new definition to every muscle and notable extra bulk to her shoulders, arms, and legs.

"Gabrielle?" Xena whispered.

Gabrielle's eyes finally opened - and were green, exactly like usual. It took some of the unsettling otherness away from her form, even though recognition hadn't yet found her gaze. Those eyes snapped to Xena's after a moment, and Gabrielle stood up to her new, imposing height - a full head and shoulders over Xena's. She cocked her head.

"Easy, sweetheart." Xena kept her hands at her sides and her shoulders relaxed, but she held Gabrielle's gaze, reasoning that she didn't seem to take it as a challenge. She wondered if her partner could hear her heart racing, unsure whether there was danger. "It's me. I love you. Are you okay?"

With startling quickness, Gabrielle swooped down to look at Xena's face straight-on again, and only a lifetime of mastery over her reflexes kept Xena from reacting in any way. Gabrielle sniffed, then tilted her head again and smoothly brought her face right up to the juncture between Xena's neck and shoulder. She sniffed again, then relaxed her posture a little.

Now that she was bent over further than before, Xena could look over her shoulder and see a pale gold tail protruding from her partner's backside, furry and with a slight curve, and it gave what looked like a happy little twitch. The edge of hysteria started to push against Xena's control. Her partner had turned into an enormous, surely-dangerous beast - with fuzzy ears and a cute tail, and for some reason, the latter was almost more than she could handle.

Right as Xena bit down on her laugh, Gabrielle sniffed and snuffled right into her cleavage, sending a frisson through her whole body and forcing a strangled noise through her composure, but Gabrielle just gave a contented-sounding little growl/hum. Then she moved to Xena's other shoulder and around to the back of her neck.

"Xena..." she breathed against the back of Xena's ear. "My... mine. My mate?"

The undercurrent of a growl couldn't hide Gabrielle's voice, though it did make her speech rumble through Xena's back where they touched. That was... kind of pleasant, actually. "I'm Xena all right. And I'm yours if I'm anyone's."

Actually sounding amused, Gabrielle posited, "You're mine," and playfully bit Xena's shoulder. Just a light nip, but sharper than it would normally have been, and then she let go with her mouth only to wrap her long arms around Xena's middle.

Xena leaned into her out of almost sheer confusion. The sharp teeth, the loving arms, the enormous muscles on those arms, the comforting vibration of Gabrielle's voice against her back, her feral body language - Xena's instinctual fear response tangled up with a variety of other responses and tripped over a bushel of new stimuli, rendering her unsure what to do or feel. But not unhappy about where she was.

Perhaps pleased with that small capitulation, Gabrielle rubbed her cheek against Xena's and hummed again. She pulled away and leaned forward to catch her eye, her visage the image of beastly contentment. "Okay?"

Xena looked at this beast that held her - the partner that cuddled her securely - and couldn't help herself. Slowly, she reached up with the hand on Gabrielle's side... and touched her fuzzy ear. It twitched. She took the ear between her fingers and rubbed it. So soft...

Gabrielle sneezed and shook her head vigorously before gently butting her temple against Xena's. She grumbled, "That... tickles."

Xena found it utterly endearing, and she relaxed, right up until Gabrielle smiled at her and casually bent to lick the side of her neck. An involuntary shiver followed. After a pause, Gabrielle licked again, slower, and Xena felt herself lean against Gabrielle even more. A delicate nibble on her earlobe was next, and Xena couldn't help the gasp.

Gabrielle's hands moved to Xena's hips and trailed up to her waist... and higher, slowly. She sniffed the air and chuckled. "My little mate wants me... Would you like me to be gentle?"

Well. This was one way to fill their time while they were barred into a hut.

Xena swallowed as large hands slid over her breasts. "Just... a little gentle. Maybe." Her want shouted down every question she almost thought to ask of herself in this situation. She wanted - enough she was weak in the knees and already breathing faster.

And her mate surely wanted. Xena felt the tug of clever teeth pulling the ties of her leathers undone.

"Let's play."


	2. Confusion

Gabrielle awoke to a sharp pain on her chest - which turned out to be Xena, sleeping peacefully with her head planted directly on Gabrielle’s right breast. She took a half-second to be disoriented - naked, an unfamiliar hut, a bed, the barest hint of dawn in the gaps between the window shutters - before squirming. “Xena!”

“Huh?” Xena’s head popped up, bringing sweet relief. Her eyes were so bleary, Gabrielle was surprised she had been moving enough to roll onto there in the first place; she had clearly been deeply asleep.

“That’s better already,” Gabrielle sighed. “Are we safe here?” Her memory was a little fuzzy, and her body felt wrung-out somehow. They almost never drank enough for that to happen; had they been drugged? What could-

Expression still half-glazed, Xena looked Gabrielle up and down, then moved up the bed to settle on her side and gather her in her arms. Oh no; what did Xena have to tell her that was so bad she felt the need to cuddle first? Were they prisoners here? Set to be executed? She wracked her brain. Hadn’t they helped this town? Right, there had been a wedding and a romantic rival to the bride and… a curse.

Xena said, “Uh-huh.” And then nothing more.

Gabrielle waited, blinking, but only heard Xena’s breathing take on the regularity of sleep. She sighed and rolled her eyes, almost ready to go back to sleep and ask questions later until the motion drew her attention to large, lurid bite marks on Xena’s shoulder. Gabrielle started and pulled back for a better look - and there, in the growing light of morning, were more bite marks on her chest.

“Xena! Xena, wake up! Are you okay? Do you need your healer’s kit?! If you lost a lot of blood, you have to stay awake so I can-”

“What?” Xena nearly whined, one eye now open. She lazily pried Gabrielle’s hands away from checking her for wounds. “Stop that. Aren’t you tired? You kept us up all night.”

“Did I hurt you?!”

Xena opened both eyes and gave a smile so indecent, Gabrielle started blushing before her mind caught the meaning behind the words, “Only just enough.”

Calmer but still disconcerted, Gabrielle asked, “We… wait, we slept together? I thought I was cursed. What happened last night?”

Xena grew three shades paler, and her smile dropped. “You really don’t remember?”

“Not a thing.” As Xena looked at her with a carefully blank expression, Gabrielle tried to imagine what the Hades had happened. Had she just become some kind of sex fiend or nymph version of herself? Or a succubus, to exhaust her lover so? What had they got up to? “Uh, Xena?”

Xena blew out a breath and propped herself up on an elbow. “You turned into a… beast, of a sort. Bigger, hairier, but still you. And you-”

“Hairier?! I got big and… hairy, and what, I grabbed you?” 

“You came onto me, Gabrielle, but it wasn’t just you who was interested. You didn’t threaten me. So we…” Xena trailed off as Gabrielle flopped onto her back, mind swirling. “Are you upset? You knew me, so I didn’t think you would forget. I thought it was like one of Aphrodite’s spells, where you just act weird for a while.”

Gabrielle considered things and imagined scenarios and thought them through, and she decided there wasn’t anything to be mad about - but perhaps there were some things to wonder about. 

She had a lot of questions.

But this wasn’t the wildest thing to ever happen to them. And the event was over, a one-night curse, and they were really tired. “Let’s just go back to sleep.”

* * * * *

It was not a one-night curse.

Many days after that night, Xena and Gabrielle found themselves fighting off an unusually-large bandit ambush at twilight. The battle seemed manageable, and they had a ridge at their back, but they had gotten a little separated. So when Xena heard Gabrielle cry out from several bandits away, she whipped the chakram at her attacker faster than thought. The blonde’s nearest opponent went down hard and then scrambled away with blood running down his arms.

But Gabrielle was bent double and obviously still vulnerable, stumbling away from her attackers, so the bandits she had knocked away or who had fallen back from the chakram lunged for her anew.

Xena bolted to intercept them. Both of her booted feet impacted the ribs of one bandit, which sent him careening into the side of the man a half-step closer to Gabrielle; they went down in a winded tangle. Xena skewered a third who was too intent on reaching his target to dodge around her sword, and then she was fully in front of Gabrielle and protecting her even as the opponent she had abandoned was hot on her heels. She exploited a quiet half-second to center herself and engage her senses, ready to monitor every bandit that entered her space.

The man she had kicked was still gasping, but the one he tripped struggled to his feet as two more ran at her.

Until a blur of gold fur and pink skin flew over her shoulder and tackled the nearest one. Fluffy tail, tattered leather - it was Gabrielle, again in wolfish form, holding the rangy man to the ground and roaring in his face. It reverberated through her chest and snarled out of her wide, toothy jaw.

How could this be happening again?!

The man wet himself, Xena could see from her vantage point; she did not blame him. 

And just like that, the fight stalled. Men poised to strike and men on the ground all froze where they were. Xena pulled in a breath to speak, to do something, never one to be overcome by momentary shock - but she paused as Gabrielle sniffed at her catch.

“Easy,” Xena tried, with exaggerated calm. “Gabrielle, easy.” 

Gabrielle sneered at the damp man under her, locked eyes on the next nearest man, who stood with a shaking sword at his side, and raised herself up to stalk toward him.

“Gabrielle, stop!” Xena snapped.

Gabrielle’s ears twitched, and she paused without releasing one iota of tension from her coiled muscles.

With a snarl of her own, Xena brought out her old warlord voice, “Get out of here! Take your injured and go, you worthless rats, go!”

Bloodied and terrified, they did, leaving only the dead. There were shouts as helpful bandits yanked on the injured limbs of cranky stragglers, yelps as some tripped on loose helmets, and a howl as one hurt himself trying to run away and sheath his sword at the same time. For a moment at the start, Xena feared Gabrielle would chase the fleeing prey and do something she would regret later, but instead she took measured steps backwards until Xena had to tilt to see past her broad back. One step just missed the man she had tackled as he scrambled from under her feet.

When the bandits were mostly clear, and Xena almost thought about taking a relieved breath, Gabrielle whirled around, scooped her up under her knees and back, and proceeded to hop up the ridge that had been at their back.

It didn’t occur to Xena to resist until they were hurtling through the air over sparse, rocky outcroppings, and then all she could do was cling with one hand and keep her sword clear with the other, swearing under her breath.

Once atop a wide shelf of rock decorated with bare scrub, Gabrielle let Xena down only to sniff at her quite intrusively.

“Hey!” Xena pushed the large head away from her chest, then from under the black leather that draped down to her thighs. “Shove off; kidnappers don’t get into my pants.”

Gabrielle simply gave her head a vigorous shake and swooped back in to lick at a scrape Xena had not noticed on her elbow.

“Aw, don’t do that. I’ll be fine. Come on, take us back down, will ya?” Now that they had achieved relative safety, her mind began working over their hierarchy of problems in order of what she could fix - Gabrielle’s animalistic state currently at the bottom, since she had no resources with which to address it. At the top was not losing their supplies, all recently cobbled-together and currently unattended. They owed Joxer enough money as it was.

Gabrielle took her time cleaning the elbow, then looked up at Xena through the fluff of her hair. At Xena’s grimace, her green eyes turned mournful, and she butted her head against the silver breastplate. Her reverberating, growling Gabrielle voice whined, “Xena.”

The warrior sighed, feeling like she had kicked a puppy. She began sorting Gabrielle’s wild hair with gentle fingers. “Yes, I’m here, and I love you. But we need to go back down there. Take me, please?”

Though Xena tried a mournful look of her own, Gabrielle looked into it, stood up straighter and just… set her jaw. Dammit, that look always worked on Gabrielle.

“Protect Xena."

"Gabrielle, we- I need that stuff." They glared across a wall of silence until inspiration struck. "And it's ours, our territory, and if we leave it, the bad man will take it!"

Gabrielle’s ears stood up straighter. "Take?!"

"Yeah, they'll take it! Everything that smells like us. Go get it! Guard it!"

Now riled up, Gabrielle snarled and leapt straight off the ridge, stopping Xena’s heart until she ran to the ledge to see her transformed partner drive her claws into the rock and slide to a stop part way down before leaping again.

Well, if she couldn’t get down, at least their bedroll and provisions would come up. Unless Gabrielle found something else to chase down there.

* * * * *

Gabrielle awoke with a violent shiver. The wan morning light revealed she was spooned up behind Xena against some enormous cliff. On a little, windswept shelf, with only bare shrubs to shield them. They had no fire; Xena had no clothes; her own clothes were a tattered disaster - but they were at least on top of their bedrolls, if uncovered.

“Xena, wake up. Where above Atlas’ sweaty backside are we?!” Already annoyed and absolutely freezing, she got up to search for their blanket. Turning back toward the bedroll with her prize, she glanced out from the shelf and blinked. And blinked again, and walked to its edge. Shockingly diminutive trees rested at the bottom of a mostly-sheer rock face.

“Gabrielle, come back from there. We’re high up,” came Xena’s voice from behind her. “I have something to tell you.”

Gabrielle spun back toward her, incredulous. “I hope so! Can you start with where we are, how we got all the way up here, and how the heck we get down?!” 

“...That last one is a good question.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize this has more of a schtick than a plot, but believe it or not, it's going somewhere.


	3. Friends

The third time Gabrielle transformed into a wolf creature, Xena figured out it was tied to the phase of the moon. When it was full, the bard would grow, sprout fur and fangs, and forget any higher ideals and ideas in favor of protecting and romancing Xena, hunting, and fighting. From nightfall until the break of day, her hungers ruled her, and she retained precious little memory of it.

That third transformation also had significant witnesses: Joxer and Amarice.

As Xena strolled back to their forested campsite from a twilight water run, she listened to affable voices and the crackle of the fire grow closer. At the time, Joxer was talking to Gabrielle about how to prepare dinner while Amarice was off hunting the rest of it, at her own insistence.

But when Xena stepped into the clearing, draped in full waterskins and hauling a bucket besides, she found Gabrielle hunched over with straining muscles and Joxer feeling her head for fever and generally fussing over his friend.

Xena dropped everything in her haste to push Joxer away from her partner, who at that very moment exploded into a hulking, furry creature. Her top’s ties burst apart, again, giving both of her traveling companions an eyeful when she stood to her full, towering height.

Joxer fainted.

Gabrielle glanced at Xena before locking eyes on his unconscious form. She let out a low growl, intent, and began to coil for a pounce.

“Hey!” Xena jumped to her side and grabbed her arm. “No.” She pulled the elbow and barely budged it.

Gabrielle continued to growl and shifted her feet.

“Don’t you dare!” Xena scolded, and going with her instincts, she bit a furred ear.

Instantly, Gabrielle broke out of her prey trance and delivered an intensely betrayed look.

“You can’t eat him; he’s our friend.”

A steady, uncomprehending gaze answered her.

Hastily but firmly, Xena insisted, “He’s family, he’s…” - inspiration struck - “he’s pack.”

Gabrielle’s ears rotated forward from their sullen slant, and she blinked, just barely relaxing.

Xena pressed on, “Yes, he’s in our pack. We don’t hurt pack.” She released Gabrielle’s arm as aggression finally melted into curiosity.

While Gabrielle sniffed Joxer from head to toe and Xena watched over them, they began to hear Amarice’s steps approach. They watched for her, Xena placing a calming hand on Gabrielle’s back as the young woman reached the firelight and looked up.

“AAaah!” She threw her rabbit prize aside. “What is- Xena, I'll help!” She drew her weapons.

“EASY,” Xena yelled at both women, clamping her hand more firmly on Gabrielle.

Below Amarice’s ranting - “I’ll distract it! Save Joxer! Where’s Gabrielle?!” - Xena spoke into her partner’s ear, “She’s pack, too. Amazon pack. She smells like us, too, got it?”

Gabrielle stood and ambled toward Amarice, who did not lunge forward to intercept her but didn’t run, either.

“You fight monsters all the time, right? I can do this. I can so do this.”

Xena indulged in an eye roll. “Relax; she won’t hurt you. Let her sniff you.”

“ExCUSE me?”

“Trust me.”

Taut as a bowstring and shivering, Amarice nonetheless held her ground and permitted Gabrielle to investigate her. Though she did let out a squeak when a nose Xena personally knew to be very cold poked her bare midriff. “W-where is Gabrielle?”

“That is Gabrielle.”

Utter, frozen silence apart from Gabrielle’s snuffling. Until, apparently satisfied, the blonde turned away from her nearly-catatonic protege to pick up the fallen rabbit carcass and bite into it.

The two fully-human women watched the messy supper, one with dawning horror.

“Yep,” remarked Xena, crossing her arms. “That’s your queen. Strongest Amazon of them all, I’d wager.”

“I…” Amarice executed a half-controlled fall onto her rear end in the leaves, still dazed. She looked like she wanted to follow Joxer into unconsciousness. “I would not take that bet.”

* * * * *

A little later, Xena had gotten Joxer and Amarice upright and seated by the fire before explaining what little she knew about the curse.

“No, Joxer, she wasn’t bitten. If being bitten by a monster turned you into one, Hercules would be a chimera. I don’t know where you get your ideas.” She shifted on her bedroll to more comfortably cross her legs.

“Just something I heard from a Britannian bard.” Joxer was staring her in the eye with unsettling persistence, clearly having no idea where else to look. If he was uncomfortable leaving a slavering beast at his back, he moreso feared getting another unauthorized view of Gabrielle’s chest, transformed or not. Or, more likely, feared what Gabrielle would do about it later.

The beastly bard herself finished her meal in that moment and walked over, looking content until she laid eyes on Xena and froze mid-step. She put her foot down and looked at her bloodied hands, then back up to her mate. Her whole demeanor swiftly spelled out extreme guilt - ears and tail rotated down, shoulders hunched to appear smaller.

With frankness but no anger, Xena told her, “Yeah, that was all our dinner. No point apologizing now. You probably wouldn’t have eaten the greens we were cooking with it anyway.” She enjoyed the wide eyed shock coming from her friends on an adjacent log.

Gabrielle shuffled over with visible contrition, only to stop three steps away and carefully sniff the air. Up went the ears and tail, the only warning Xena had before an onslaught of sniffing. Arm, neck, abdomen - nowhere was safe, and she squirmed under the attention.

“What? Do I smell? I bathed just as recently as you; you were there.”

At that Gabrielle bent low to press her cheek to Xena’s belly. She rubbed against it and made happy-sounding growl noises until Xena had to laugh.

“You’re ridic- hey!”

Gabrielle had shifted up to nibble at her neck affectionately. Which led into her pressing Xena back until they both laid on their bedroll.

At which point an alarm sounded in Xena’s head. She put her hands against her partner’s shoulders even as she was gently pushed onto her back. “Whoa, hold it, Gab, now isn’t the best-”

Gabrielle obligingly sat up - then patted Xena’s belly and turned to get up and head who-knew-where.

“Wait!”

Deep-set green eyes looked back at her in puzzlement. “Why?”

“You don’t have to go anywhere,” Xena said in a firm tone. She pulled at Gabrielle’s arm and maneuvered her willing bulk to lay down beside her. For good measure, she then climbed on top of the amiable beast, straddling her belly. Feeling a little more in control of the situation, certain Gabrielle wouldn’t hurt her, she tried an order. “Stay here with me, Gabrielle. Amarice, can you get that big linen from the bag with the fringe?”

Huge hands settled over Xena’s hips and slid her further down Gabrielle’s body, just as easily as Xena would slide an ale across a bar. “Stay here?”

Xena felt a slight but unmistakable roll of Gabrielle’s hips through her leather trousers, and memories of some of this wolfish body’s more… interesting talents flooded her mind. That combined with Gabrielle’s impudent, feral grin nearly nearly made her blush.

“Gabrielle, no, not he- That’s not why we’re in the bedroll!” She glanced over to see their friends sat in silent mortification. Amarice pondered the fire with her face aflame and the linen clutched in her hands.

Joxer had turned his helmet backwards at some point to blind himself. “I can’t hear anything! I promise! So I’m definitely not picturing what’s going on out there!”

Xena growled in inarticulate frustration, took a deep breath, and deliberately melted atop her partner. Belly-to-belly, head to chin, she tilted up to deliver a sweet whisper only Gabrielle would hear.

“Will you stay with me and just cuddle? It’s cold, and I’m tired, Gabrielle.” With mild surprise as she said it, Xena realized it was true. She could easily nod off right where she was, if her bed would stop fidgeting. “Come on, sweetheart. Stay?”

All she wanted was for it to sound more enticing than terrorizing other travelers along the road or potentially riling up a local mob. But, with exceeding gentleness, Gabrielle instead put her arms around her lover and rolled them both over before starting to get up.

“Get meat; feed Xena.” She stood and looked over at their friends, pointing at Xena when she had at least Amarice’s attention. “Pack, protect.”

The young Amazon snorted. “That’s Gabrielle all right.”

“Then wait! Here.” Xena knew by now she couldn’t restrain Gabrielle, certainly not with the level of force she was actually willing to use. So she wrapped Gabrielle’s chest with the linen from their packs, careful not to constrict her movement. It went around the back of her neck and across her breasts, tied in the back while the bemused creature humored her mate. “You chase animals only, you hear? Steer clear of any humans. As a matter of fact, why don’t you let me come with y-”

And she was gone, lost to the dark wood in a blur of motion.

Amarice plucked Joxer’s helmet off and set it aside as he blinked at the firelight. “Only Gabrielle would turn into a monster dedicated to protecting the most dangerous woman I have ever met.”

Joxer added, “It’s cute that even like that she keeps you wrapped around her finger, though. Or paw, or-” his speech sped up suspiciously, “or flipper for all I know; I didn’t look long enough to tell.”

Xena snorted, “Excuse me?”

“I didn’t!”

“Not that, Joxer.”

“Oh. Well you certainly wouldn’t ever let _me_ dump you into bed and run into the woods if you didn’t want me to go.”

“What am I supposed to do, shackle her to a tree?”

Amarice joined in, “No, he’s right. It’s… actually kind of precious that you dressed the giant wolf creature before you sent her out to get dinner.”

Xena didn’t speak to them again until Gabrielle came back with two slightly mangled, fresh duck carcasses in tow, as well as fresh algae and mud in her fur. She handed one duck to Xena, then chucked the other at Amarice and Joxer, and then there was a scuffle when Xena handed her plucked duck off to Joxer to cook.

But they sorted it all out, and Gabrielle even let Xena clean her up before they ate. Xena sat on her bedroll with the fire in front of her and her back against her protector, who lounged on her side. Xena fed Gabrielle tidbits of duck and otherwise enjoyed the warmth. And she pretended not to see Joxer’s and Amarice’s amused looks.

Eventually, Gabrielle’s restless energy propelled her into the woods again to run, but it was late enough that no humans would likely be wandering. Xena extracted a promise of “no near fire” and went to bed, waking up when Gabrielle returned and insisted on laying with her head on Xena’s abdomen. She curled the rest of herself around her mate, making Xena very cozy until morning came and Gabrielle’s legs shrank right out from under her head.

Two weeks later, they learned Xena was pregnant.


	4. Timing

Xena and Gabrielle learned to plan for the full moon - to be away from people and, after one regrettable incident with sheep, livestock. But circumstances were not always completely under their control.

One memorable incident occurred on the dark day Eli died. The couple was already out of sorts after learning about the Twilight of the Gods and dealing with more personal issues. After Ares stabbed Eli, Xena and Gabrielle fought about it, too gutted not to lash out at one another, and Gabrielle stalked away into the desert. It wasn’t until after Eli’s funeral, when Xena was a league away and seeking the Helios Dagger with the angelic Callisto’s assistance, that the full moon’s rise made her realize. At which point she nearly had a heart attack.

Meanwhile, Gabrielle was on her way to visit Eli’s lonely ashes when the change began. Ares had evidently been watching her turmoil for his own coercive reasons and appeared before her when she hunched over in pain.

She remembered his smug face and crossed arms as he taunted, “Don’t tell me you’re sick. Can’t change the world with heat exhaustion, kid.”

From what they later gathered from a lone witness, a terrified acolyte of Eli, around that time a beast had attacked Ares relentlessly and rendered him completely bewildered. The witness had heard muffled complaints about drool and one distinct, “What sorcery IS this?!”

Ares had tossed the creature aside. “Transform back. I’m trying to offer you the world he-hey! Gross!”

Gabrielle and Xena later had to find a creative way to pay someone off for a lost goat without revealing one of them had eaten it.

* * * * *

They both grew thankful for Xena’s leather-mending skills, since Gabrielle’s modesty and their shared wallet depended on it. To say nothing of what they spent on fixing burst shoes.

Alas, Gabrielle was quite certain she would never get used to the aftereffects of swallowing large amounts of fur at night. Xena was similarly skeptical she could teach Gabrielle’s wolfish persona to skin kills.

* * * * *

Their stay in Melodia actually had good timing. They had plenty of room to deal with Terpsichore’s Lyre without having to hike out and overnight in a remote area. And then, the full moon still a while away, they accompanied Cyrene back to Amphipolis and made sure she was okay after her odd behavior in Melodia. (It turned out she needed a very long talk explaining that her daughter and her partner had not broken up, nor had they opened up their relationship to some mysterious man, temporarily or otherwise.)

And then, being so close to Potidaea, they simply had to go visit the family farm. Where they were plied with vague questions about their rumored death and Xena’s pregnancy until they explained the fine details, including that it was unplanned but wanted.

Remarkably, all alarm at divine parentage was shortly swept under the rug in favor of sweet-talking the couple’s help with digging a new well. And then it was roof repairs. And suddenly it was the full moon.

“I’m just saying, I know your old room is no fancy Athens inn, but you two live outside. So I don’t see what’s so objectionable-”

“Dad, there’s nothing wrong with staying in the house! We just- we need-”

“You know we shouldn’t tell him about this,” Xena interrupted, earning her eight blinking eyes from around the dinner table.

“Well, I know, Xena, but… I wasn’t…” Gabrielle spoke slowly and bore her gaze into Xena’s as she grasped for a clue.

Xena turned to Herodotus. “All we can tell you is it’s an Amazon thing.”

As He, Hecuba, and Lila tilted their heads, Gabrielle’s eyes widened in understanding, which she followed with a theatrical sigh. “You know I’m their queen. It’s important I keep our secrets, but it’s also important I keep up the rituals, and, well, it _is_ the full moon.”

Hecuba raised an eyebrow. “Haven’t you been here for other full moons?”

“I wasn’t pregnant then,” Xena stated flatly.

“Xena, that’s enough details!”

Xena turned to Gabrielle with an exaggerated, “Yes, your majesty.” When Gabrielle swatted her arm with a napkin, she took it with a grin.

“Hey, is that how you treat the bearer of your Amazon princess?”

Instead of answering her, Gabrielle bent over to press her head and hands against her prominent belly. “Honey, you can’t turn out as incorrigible as your mom, okay? I can’t handle two of you.”

Xena smiled and gently ran her fingers through Gabrielle’s hair. “If she’s as cute as her mama, she’ll get away with it.” They shared a warm, soft-eyed moment while the rest of the family cleared throats and passed food around. In her younger years, Xena would have never participated in such a naked display of affection, but she loved Gabrielle and loved her all the more as the bard fell deeper in love with the idea of their little one.

Just a short while later, as they both stood in the woods beyond the farm and its fields, she dipped into that deep well of devotion she had for her bard to extract some extra patience. Gabrielle was cold, and naked, and agitated with moonrise’s proximity.

“This is ridiculous. It’s freezing out here. Why couldn’t we stay in the stable or barn?”

With exaggerated calm, Xena explained again, “It’s all I can do to keep you from snatching livestock when they _aren’t_ in the same room. And you know your dad is going to wander into the barn. If not tonight, then at dawn for some reason.”

Gabrielle actually stomped her foot. “Well I’m sorry I’m such a handful!”

Xena bit down on a huge sigh. “You’re not-” Gabrielle pegged her with a bone dry look. “-okay, you are a handful, but I like it.” She watched Gabrielle look down and paw the ground with her foot, apparently needing to process that admission.

“I enjoy every night with big, fuzzy you, okay? You just tire me out is all. And that’s not always a bad thing.” Xena tried a slight leer.

Instead of being immediately comforted, Gabrielle looked up with a sullen expression. “Yeah, I know.”

Xena threw her hands up. “What now? Is it…” She thought for a moment.

“Are you jealous of yourself?” she asked incredulously.

“No! …I don’t know.”

Gabrielle looked so miserable, Xena stepped up to her and put her hands on her shoulders, waiting for a wide-eyed glance up so Gabrielle could see the affection shining out of her own face. She knew she was nearly welling up with it, thanks to the pregnancy’s effect on her own emotions.

“It’s you, Gabrielle. I love fuzzy you because it’s you. Just with more animal instincts and less impulse control, but you love me, so who else could it be?” She took a second to enjoy Gabrielle’s skeptical look. “But I also love…”

Xena trailed off and looked to the side, considering her words. Then she pulled Gabrielle against her, somewhat to the side of her abdomen, and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. When one hand slid up Gabrielle’s back to press her head against Xena’s neck, and Xena’s chin came to rest on top, Gabrielle gave in and hugged her back.

Xena kissed her hairline and tucked her back under her chin. “I love this. Every day and every other night of the month, I love how we fit, how you feel, and your mind. I can rely on you like no one else.”

“So you like me short?” A joke was a good sign.

“Yes. Short more than tall, but tall is still you. The beast changes your mind and body, but it still has your heart.” She paused to let that sink in, pleased when she felt Gabrielle nuzzle closer. “And I’m glad you’re like this most of the time, but sometimes it is fun to have you bigger than me. Even if it comes with you picking me up and hauling me around without asking.” Xena felt the tension under her arms dissolve at last, and she indulged in a moment of just feeling at peace with her partner.

In a grudging tone but through a smile, Gabrielle admitted, “Being held like this is pretty nice… I guess I can’t blame you for liking it. Though now I just wish I could remember it.”

“Well, maybe we can work on that. You keep some of your human memories already when you turn; maybe it can go the other way?”

Gabrielle pulled back just enough to look up at Xena. “Let’s work on it, then.”

Their smiles shifted then, carrying an undercurrent across the scant distance between them. Xena found herself extra aware of how naked her partner was, pressed against her own cloth-clad form.

So she asked, “You know something your beastly form can’t do?”

“Hm?” But Gabrielle was already lifting her body onto her toes as Xena leaned down to kiss her. One of those thorough, consuming kisses that made the chill fall away, that lit up her every sense - until they heard something in the woods.

By the time Hecuba emerged from the worn path between the trees, Gabrielle was mostly hidden behind Xena, but her mother spotted the tidy pile of clothing on a rock beside their bedroll and rolled her eyes. “Are you naked? Oh for crying out loud, is that why you’re out here? You couldn’t keep your hands off one another for a few more nights? You live together!”

Gabrielle yelled, “It’s not what it looks like! We’re not out here for sex!”

“Then why are you naked for some ritual about Xena? Where are your feathers and body paint or whatever you all use?”

Xena tried, “....They’re… well, it’s not dark yet.”

Hecuba crossed her arms. “Oh, okay. Well, I’m your mother and a woman; can’t I watch the ritual? I won’t tell anyone about it.”

“No,” came two voices.

“Why?”

Gabrielle opened her mouth to answer. “......Uh.”

Hecuba shook her head, resigned. “Look, I don’t mean to be upset. You’ve been with us a quarter moon already, and Xena, I was the same way when I was as pregnant. I admit I don’t understand why it has to be in the woods or why you had to make up a story to come out here, but…”

“You were what?” Gabrielle asked, horrified.

While Xena protested, “Wait, this isn’t MY fault!”

“I’m just saying that Lila would have let you have the bedroom for an hour. But I’m going back now.” And Hecuba left with moments to spare before the change, certainly leaving no time to chase her down and think of another story.

* * * * *

That was the sort of low-stakes drama they remembered with fondness, later, once the gods turned their wrath on their unborn baby. After relentless trials and tribulations, it was a miracle she was born at all, and then they were on the run again out of Greece.


	5. Into the Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I took a bit with this one! My brain was not cooperating at all.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and if you liked it, a comment would mean the world!

Eve had a harrowing birth amidst the rage of the gods themselves, but the infant’s first two full moons introduced her to a beast at peace. More than peace - Xena relished in telling Gabrielle after each transformation that her wolfish self was “over the moon” for the baby. She spent about half of each night on her back, cooing at the much tinier, new creature sleeping on her chest, and she spent the other half wearing a path into the forest floor. Xena had never known better-guarded campsites, at least not without suspecting a few fighters inside the perimeter of wanting to kill her. But with Gabrielle on high alert, out in the wilds with preternatural senses, she actually managed to rest her recovering body a little.

In between those two transformations, however, they attempted a stand against the gods at Amphipolis. But even their victory promised them no peace, so they fled north. It galled them to run, truly flee, from anything. However, they simply could not keep Eve safe with the full weight of Olympus bearing down on them. They needed to regroup, rest, and explore their options. With the moon’s phase on their minds, always.

At first, just staying out of the demesne of Zeus seemed like it would be enough to keep their little family safe. The Northern Amazons had need of their guidance and lived in remote secrecy, as fortune would have it, so they took respite there. They helped the decidedly young village avert a war with some nomads and then caught up on sleep and writing, and Gabrielle began meditating on her wolfish self. She so badly wanted to remember what she did while under the influence of the moon… and if she could hold onto some of herself in its light, things would be easier on them both.

So what if Joxer showed up and caused an uproar? They managed to protect him from execution, care for Eve, and work through a domestic dispute at the same time, no sweat.

What it turned out they could _not_ manage was to slip out to the woods together, alone. Ever. Each attempt attracted hangers-on who insisted they wanted to help or watch them hunt or train or ask questions about Amazon law. If the couple so much as went to take a jog with Eve on Xena’s back, young sentries would descend from the trees and into their path to pester them. So when the full moon rose, they spent a rambunctious night inside their yurt. And then fielded a dozen questions about the interesting sounds overheard in nearby yurts. Once they could be roused from sated unconsciousness, that is.

The Northern Amazon village did not work out long-term.

* * * * *

Circumstances eventually sent them into the Land of the Pharaohs, and the full moon rose while they were there. At the expense of a lot of parlor furniture in a room of Cleopatra’s suite, Xena just barely kept Gabrielle from, as she put it, “EAT ANT MAN.”

“Gabrielle, there’s no Ant man here.” Xena grunted with the effort of yanking at Gabrielle’s elbow as she spoke. It was not enough to save the settee she had pushed in front of the door.

Of course Gabrielle’s wolfish memory would improve tonight, now, in the middle of a volatile political situation. She had been meditating on her connection with her wolf whenever they had a breath to spare, anxious to have every strategic faculty should she need to protect her family under a full moon.

Several moons ago she couldn’t remember Joxer, functionally the uncle of their child. But tonight the crystal clear memory of Antony, a man they barely knew, served as her sole focus.

Gabrielle stopped roughly disassembling furniture to shake a deflated cushion off her claw, sneezing when one of its feathers landed on her snout. Then she turned an accusatory look on Xena. “You smell like Ant man.”

Xena’s eyebrow twitched, and she strode over to their pile of bedding before turning to answer. “We are hunting Antony, remember?”

“Smell like you caught him.”

Xena threw her hands up, half in frustration at the blush she felt rise on her cheeks. “Oh, come on, Gabrielle. You are my mate, not him. I can’t just chuck him in the Nile or let you eat him; he’s…” She saw the big head cock while those familiar green eyes searched hers, receptive to any simple truth Xena might give her. But Xena faltered. “It’s very complicated and boring to explain. But I love you only, okay? Look, if we have to be cooped up here, why don’t we play? I have a ball. You wanna catch it? You liked that last time.”

Gabrielle did turn her body toward Xena, but the step she took was not playful. If she were any creature but Gabrielle, Xena would have found it threatening.

“You are my mate.”

Xena met her gaze, and something inside her settled under the proprietous glare. “Yes.”

Gabrielle stalked yet closer. “Mine.”

Xena took a step forward of her own, putting her right in front of Gabrielle. She looked into her face and declared flatly, “Yours, and you are mine, you possessive furball.”

Gabrielle inclined her head in acknowledgement and put her clawed hands on Xena’s shoulders. “Your mate. I show now.”

Xena laid her hands on her mate’s flanks and leaned in to nip her collarbone, feeling the satisfied growl vibrate through her lips.

A little later, it was Xena who forgot Antony’s name, and her own in the bargain.

* * * * *

The next day, Gabrielle claimed - without looking Xena in the eye - not to remember any of it.

When she next saw Antony, however, something about the smirk that overtook her face made Xena doubt.

* * * * *

With the young Octavius on the way to his throne in Rome, Xena and Gabrielle moved on. But wherever they brushed against civilization, bounty hunters found them - either in town or down the path, following word of their passage and deeds. Geography limited Olympus’ direct influence, but their followers and their dinars traveled much farther.

Eventually, Xena and Gabrielle knew they had to reckon with the hunt or never know peace again. So they put together a wild, desperate plan with the help of Octavius, and Joxer, and the tears of Death herself, Celesta.

Poison, a charade, a gut-wrenching tumble off a cliff by the sea… and they knew no more.

* * * * *

Xena stirred to the sound of scraping very close to her head, followed by a keening whine.

“Wha-” Barely a croak. Pitch dark. Cold. Alone. She worked her bone dry throat and licked her lips. “Gabrielle?” Poison still filling her limbs with lead, she pressed against her surroundings to discover some kind of enclosure trapping her, but with blessed air coming through a crack near her head.

A piteous whimper came through the gap, and then the sound of snuffling filled it. And then a howl, somehow triumphant to her ears.

“Gabrielle? Where are we? Get-” Moving her lips sapped far more energy than it should have, but alarm fought every drop of lethargy. Where were they? How was Gabrielle her wolf self? The full moon wasn’t due for weeks, last she remembered. But she still felt the poison, though it was simply not meant to last that long. How…?

Soon, Gabrielle managed to push the lid off of whatever frigid box held Xena, and the warrior was pulled into a furred, shuddering lap.

Though grateful for the warm limbs wrapping her up, she had to press, “The baby. Gabrielle, where’s Eve?” Hoping her partner could smell her.

Gabrielle stilled a moment, then started howling. The echo of it told Xena something.

“We’re in a cave. Gabrielle, shush, please, sweetheart.” She clumsily wrapped her arms back around Gabrielle. “Someone put us in a cave, in the cold… We must’ve slept a long time.”

It slowly came together in her mind as she let her partner support her body. “But the moon woke you up and worked that poison right out of your system, huh? And you woke me up?”

Gabrielle nosed under Xena’s jaw and snuffled down to the juncture of neck and shoulder. Where her hands rested against Xena’s back, Xena felt a sticky wet. As if she had clawed at a desperate pace to extricate them both. So Xena kissed her neck and burrowed in closer, rubbing her back until she stilled at last.

“You’re going to be all right. I’m all right.” She in fact felt stronger by the minute. “We have to get out and find Eve, okay? I think I have flint and steel on me. Let’s find something to burn and see where we can find or make an exit.”

* * * * *

_Many moons later..._

"Now, Evie, can you wear out your mama for me before I put you to bed?" _Before she spends the rest of the night wearing me out?_

The baby reached for her blonde, currently-naked parent and dutifully called, "Mama!" And kicked her feet. Her mother had sat her butt on one forearm and held to her body close with the other, so all four limbs could flail unsteadily.

"Aww," Gabrielle cooed. "She's such a good baby, Xena."

"That toad she caught yesterday wouldn't agree."

"Well, if she wasn't trouble, how could you call her yours? At least she isn't a picky eater."

"Punk," Xena called her, fondly. She took a moment to enjoy the way the waning daylight burnished her partner's skin in gold, highlighting the muscle on her arms and shoulders as she wriggled her fingers at their baby.

"You're beautiful."

Gabrielle blinked, then looked up into Xena's eyes to grin. There was a little of the wolf about her already, in that expression. "I'm glad you think so, because I think I'm going to be handful. I've felt this moon coming for days."

Xena had time to sigh for Gabrielle’s benefit before the change took her, and she bent double, only to stand again and tower over her family. Her fuzzy, golden ears flicked as she got her bearings and zeroed in on Eve and Xena.

But Eve was ahead of her already. “Puppy Mama! Puppy!” Xena let her kick and struggle while Gabrielle got her senses, then let her loose to crawl at her transformed parent.

“Evie!” Gabrielle crouched to all fours, gave a little jump to make the baby giggle, and play-growled. When she received a rather wet attempt at a baby growl back, she bounded away and turned to wait for Eve. “Catch! Nyeh, slow baby!”

Xena watched them play chase for a minute, then retreated to the porch of the tiny cabin they had built together - a huge upgrade from their lean-to. There was a chair there, wood still new but comfortable to sit on, and she thought she might take a nap on it while Eve took her shift minding Gabrielle.

Out here in the wilds well beyond Greece, the only person who truly knew how to find them was Joxer. After finding him and retrieving their baby, the four of them had walked through various sparse towns in disguise, picking up supplies in a covered cart pulled by Argo. Nails here. Tools there. Scrolls, ink. Salt. They had to hide the cart a distance from their building site and walk everything up, the brush was so thick. Joxer had left with their love and with letters for their families, to be delivered in person and in private.

It wouldn’t do for the wrong person to know they were alive. But in this virgin forest, just in earshot of a healthy stream, Xena could think of no better way to hide a sacred baby and a wolf-woman from the gods.

Oh, with the weather warming, she thought they might visit the Northern Amazon village, explore a little, fight a little, and get some wanderlust out of their systems. Discreetly. But for now… living off the land provided a challenge, and Gabrielle and Eve provided everything else she needed.

So her only immediate plan was to nap under barely visible stars.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading!
> 
> Stray thought: A never-to-be-written sequel to this fic begins with Beowulf coming for a much older Xena and features a Pokemon battle between her and Grinhilda.


End file.
